


misplaced

by gayestever



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alcohol Mentions, Coming Out, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Kinda?????, M/M, Party, Party Games, Reality, dan thinks he's in love with a girl but it isn't discussed too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 10:59:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8099590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayestever/pseuds/gayestever
Summary: Dan was nearly 25 and he had never properly loved someone. By the time his actual birthday rolled around, he decided that he was in love with a woman named Marie. When she showed up late to his birthday party with someone on her arm, he felt defeated. Through an impromptu movie/comforting/drinking situation and a very drunk game of truth or dare, some actual feelings are uncovered. Turns out love wasn't the blinking neon sign Dan thought it was, and he was perfectly fine with that.





	

**Author's Note:**

> warnings for alcohol!!! love u all stay safe!!
> 
> comment + kudos if u liked it, i live for the Sweet Validation!
> 
> tumblr : salemhowell  
> twitter: colorbandits

Dan hated his birthday. He was just getting older, really, and the thought of people spending money on him made him feel strangely anxious. Phil, however, was adamant that Dan had a get-together for his ‘special day’, and Dan had trouble saying no to Phil, so he agreed on a small party with some of his friends. Phil took that as permission to decorate the entire flat with ribbons and banners, as well as buy out an entire bakery and liquor store.

Once it was time for the actual party, Dan was actually excited, because he would be seeing all of his friends- and Marie, who he was definitely in love with- plus, the cookies that Phil had bought looked ridiculously delicious. People started filing in, giving him hugs and handing him boxes and cards, and music was playing lightly in the background. PJ had nearly tackled him when he walked in, and Dan felt at ease surrounded by all of his closest friends.

It was an hour into the party when Marie arrived. She had a grin on her face, an orange (Dan’s least favorite color) box in her hands, and a boy with an arm around her waist. Dan put on a smile and accepted the gift, trying to not look too queasy. Marie didn’t know him very well, apparently, because she didn’t seem to think anything was wrong. A few people looked at him with sympathy in their eyes- it was common knowledge that he liked Marie.. He left after a few moments of awkward conversation, marching to his room with (hopefully) the last gift he would be handed that evening. 

Just like everything else that night his plan didn’t work, because Phil was Phil and he seemed to have a radar for when things were going wrong.

He grabbed Dan by the arm and lead him to his own bedroom, telling him to sit tight. Dan felt awkward and he just wanted to be in his own bed to maybe cry a little and hopefully fall asleep, but his friend had gone through so much trouble to set up the party so he cuddled up under blankets that weren’t his own and waited for Phil to return.

“Most of them have drank enough to not even realize we’re gone,” Phil smiled the best he could, plopping a bottle of birthday-cake vodka and a tray of various desserts on the bed before grabbing his laptop and sitting down, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Dan shook his head and sat up so he could open the vodka, taking a long sip before setting it down between him and his friend. His shirt had bunched up when he moved, and his prominent hip bone was cold against the glass of the bottle. Phil picked it up and took a sip for himself.. It was times like this when he remembers how truly lucky he is that Phil is his best friend. He loved Phil, he really did, in a way that was much more intense than he loved Marie, but he knew he was straight and his feelings were purely platonic.

He lifted the blanket so that Phil could crawl under- the June heat was unrelenting so the air was cranked all the way up- and watched as he put on Spirited Away. His mind wondered as he committed himself to focusing solely on the movie, while occasionally taking sips of the vodka. The movie was halfway through when Dan decided he couldn’t bottle anything up longer and reached out to pause the movie with a shaky hand.

“I love Marie, I think, but she’s here with someone else and it makes me feel sick,”

Phil turned to him, eyes sympathetic and sad, and pulled him in for a hug. Dan felt at home, even though his upper half was twisted oddly and his eyes were wet with tears he didn’t want to cry. They stayed like that for a while, pressed against each other, Dan shaking silently and Phil rubbing circles into his back.

“Marie doesn’t deserve you, anyway,” Phil tried to be encouraging, reaching for Dan’s face to wipe away traitorous tears and smooth down his hair.

Dan was about to answer when the door swung open, “There you areeee! Come play!”

Chris had probably drank more than Dan and Phil combined, and they had taken down nearly a whole bottle of vodka. He swayed slightly and sounded like he was singing every word that left his mouth, and the boys were buzzed but still conscious enough they should go with their friend to check on their flat.

Everybody was sat in a circle- including Marie and whoever her boyfriend was- and Chris had found his way to the middle of it, chugging something from a large bottle. He set it down surprisingly gently when he was finished, declaring something that sounded vaguely like ‘truth or dare!’. Dan shrugged and sat down, pulling on Phil’s arm and causing him to sit halfway in his lap.

The older man awkwardly shuffled off, blushing when Dan giggled at his disgruntled face. He looked up and saw Marie, then promptly decided to go get another drink. It was so natural to him that he didn’t even realize he had made two until he was handing a cup to Phil, who accepted it happily.

“Dan, you’re the birthday boy, you can spin the bottle first,” PJ, who clearly hadn’t had much to drink, handed the empty bottle to Dan.

He spun it, and it landed on Louise, “Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” she smiled, the most innocent and happy drunk Dan had ever met.

“Okay Lou, I dare you to, um, go get me another drink!” he hiccuped, not wanting to do anything too bad to his friend. She whined and the circle groaned, telling him how lame his dare was. 

Louise handed him a cup of something very strong, but Dan didn’t mind because it was exactly what he needed. Phil noticed him staring at Marie and placed a hand on his arm, rubbing circles how he did in the bedroom. Dan poured half of his drink in Phil’s also-empty cup, and they smiled at each other in the secret way that only they could. The game moved on, and eventually it was Chris’s turn to spin the bottle. It landed on Phil.

“Truth,” Phil blurted before Chris could even ask, knowing that Chris was the worst person to take a dare from. Once his old friend Madeline was dared to shave off an eyebrow- she never was the same after that.

“D’ya like anyone in the circle?” Chris giggled like a middle-schooler, smiling deviously at Phil. He, of course, knew that Phil liked Dan- nearly everybody did.

“Yes,” he sighed, grimacing when Dan stiffened next to him.

Dan knew he had no right to be jealous, he was Phil’s friend and nothing more, but he felt a bit left out that Phil hadn’t told him who he liked. The game moved on as Dan got up and got himself another drink, rapidly approaching total-drunkenness. He didn’t notice how hurt Phil was when he sat down with only one drink in hand, no longer touching thighs with the older boy. The distance felt wrong.

“Dan, truth or dare?” 

Dan looked up like a deer caught in headlights, choosing without thinking, “Dare.”

“I dare you to kiss the prettiest person in the circle.”

A tiny part of Dan’s mind was thinking about how that was unfair, it was a truth and a dare rolled into one, but that was the only part of his brain that was actually working. He turned and kissed Phil. It was messy and tasted like alcohol and Phil didn’t reciprocate, which Dan figured was because he liked someone else and was probably straight.

Dan was supposed to be straight, he was supposed to be in love with Marie, which was probably the only reason that he was dared that- give the birthday boy the best present of the day, a chance to kiss his crush with 0 repercussions. He had fucked that up, and the best relationship he had ever had in his life was ruined, and he got up without looking at Phil and walked to his room.

He shut his door forcefully before flopping on his bed. Something hard dug into his back and he sprung up, grunting. It was a package, beautifully wrapped in galaxy wrapping paper with a silver ribbon tied around it. He worked the ribbon open, curious as to what it was and relieved to have something to occupy his mind- and hands.

It slid open to reveal a card with the words OPEN LAST scrawled on it. Dan’s vision was kinda blurry, so he pegged the shaky handwriting on that. He pulled off the top to the black box easily, revealing a piece of fabric- the shirt Dan was eyeing in the shops nearly a month ago- and book. On the front it read ‘OVER THE YEARS’ in stickers, and was covered in pictures and pieces of decorative paper. Whoever made it had obviously put a lot of effort into it. He opened the book and found countless pictures of him and Phil, letters from Phil saying ‘Open When…’ and other things that made Dan tear up. The best friendship of his life, and he had just ruined it by acting on impulse.

He was about to open the letter when the door opened, revealing a very fidgety Phil. Dan opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get anything out Phil’s lips were on his own, gently and then rough and then gentle again, before reluctantly pulling away.

“I’ve had a lot to drink, and I’ll be damned if what they say about liquid courage isn’t right because I feel like I’m on top of the world right now and I’m so glad you’re here with me- if you don’t want to be here with me let me know, I’ll stop right now, because if those kisses didn’t mean anything to you I don’t want to make a fool of myself,” Dan motioned for Phil to keep talking, “I love you. The person in the circle I like, it’s you, it always has been. It honestly breaks my heart knowing you love Marie but all I want is for you to be happy. If you’ll be happier going after her then that’s what you should do. I don’t want a drunken conversation to mess up everything we’ve built.”

Dan was nearly in tears, his head was swimming and he loved Phil so completely and so naturally that he didn’t really notice when his feelings blossomed into something romantic. He had never loved Marie, not if this was what love felt like. Phil was looking at him with all of his walls down, ready to accept whatever Dan wanted. 

So, of course, Dan kissed Phil again. It was just as drunken and maybe even more messy than their first proper kiss, but something was definitely very different now that they both clearly wanted it. Dan hummed contently into Phil’s mouth, and between kisses Phil informed him that he had shoo’d everybody out and they were free to sleep. After 15 minutes of lazy kissing, they both dozed off, limbs tangled together, scrapbook pressed into Dan’s back. 

When morning came and he opened the ‘open last’ letter, he saw that it was a list of ten reasons why Phil loved him- even if Dan hadn’t made the first move the night before, he would have known. With that knowledge in his mind, he eased himself from the bed, made pancakes, and put on coffee, bringing a plate of pancakes and a cup of steaming coffee to a just barely stirring Phil, who woke up and got a kiss for each reason on the list.

**Author's Note:**

> im thinking of making a short piece thats the letter phil wrote dan?? lmk if anyone is interested??


End file.
